Happy Birthday Mom!! (not that she reads this...I've kind of told her about it but never have showed her. I'm just not ready for family and friends to read it)
She took her bday off (the 10th) and the rest of the week...LUCKY! Although this gave her the chance to drive up to my work yesterday and I took her out to lunch!
Before lunch though, comes breakfast. Ever since I made my new batch of granola on Sunday, I couldn't wait to eat it atop a delicious bowl of oats.
This was a simple mix of:* 1/3 c. oats, 1/3 c. water, 1/3 c. skim milk
* salt and vanilla
* 1/2 of a banana (wished it was slightly riper)
Topped with:
* 1 heaping tsp of Pumpkin butter
* GRANOLA
* 1 spoon of White Choc. PB
I haven't really been branching out much with my oats, but I just love this combo lately...I'm sure I'll get sick of some part of it soon and switch it up! But for now...
For Mom's Bday lunch I took her for a lovely meal at The Andover Inn. This Inn/Restaurant is on the campus of Phillip Andover Academy and is probably the nicest place close to my office. I don't think they get a big lunch crowd but it was nice relaxing and quiet. This places is very old fashion, swanky, classy...and was beautifully decorated for Christmas!
Mom started with hot tea and I with iced tea
Her hot tea is in the background, the cute stainless tea pot and pretty blue and white mug. My iced tea was Inkos brand unsweetened Honeysuckle White tea. It was very mild but really good!It was rainy and chilly out so we both started with soup...Lobster Bisque to be exact
Mmmmm! I wish it was a tad thicker and more "lobster-y" but still delicious...I mean how can you go wrong! I ate about 2/3's of the bowl...didn't want to be too full.For my main course I had a grilled vegetable and Boursin baguettine (basically fancy name for a sandwich on a baguette), and mom had the pulled pork baguettine.
Both of our sandwiches were served with a little side of pesto cous cous (Israeli cous cous)...it was awesome!! My sandwich had delicious grilled summer squash, zucchini, tomato, and baby arugula with Boursin cheese spread on one side of the roll.
I forgot how good Boursin was!!! Man I need to buy some. It's SO flavorful and Delicious!!My mom's pulled pork was REALLY good too! I ate half of my sandwich, mostly with a knife and fork, leaving the bottom part of the bread.
I was pretty full, but really wanted to order dessert because I called ahead to tell them it was a birthday lunch so I wanted a little candle in our dessert.
We finally decided on the selection of petit fours...complete with a candle!
Because our waiter couldn't stick a candle in one of those little masterpieces, he melted the wax on the bottom and just stuck it to the plate! Genius!These were great little bites to try. They weren't your traditional petit fours but still very tasty, and all different flavors. My favorites were the bottom one (sort of a caramely-nut flavor), and the 3rd up from the bottom, which had an amazing raspberry filing layer under the white cake and cream.
Dinner was my leftover half of sandwich, then Brian and I went to the mall quickly before his Soccer game. Got 1 present (better than nothing). Planning to do some more Christmas shopping today at lunch.
Tonight though....
Boston Ballet's Nutcracker!!!!!!!!!! Yippee!!!!!! I go every year, usually with the roomie, and every time I just can not wait!! I LOVE IT! Even though I've seen it countless times, I never get tired of it. It's such a beautiful, magical, whimsical, Christmasy show and really puts me in a great Holiday mood :) Can't Wait!!!
